


Moments in Time

by Squishy_TRex



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anniversary, Fluff, Growing Old Together, Love, M/M, Marriage, Married Life, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 15:05:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19336975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squishy_TRex/pseuds/Squishy_TRex
Summary: A shared life, over the years.





	Moments in Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [talktothesky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/talktothesky/gifts).



Their first kiss was a completely impulsive accident on Steve’s part.

It wasn’t as if Steve hadn’t ever thought about it before; in fact, the opposite was true. He could be (had been, by Bucky, Sam, Natasha, or all three at once) accused of thinking about it too much. Strategizing the optimal scenario and perfect timing, like a quiet moment alone at a Maria Stark Foundation gala or after defeating another worldwide threat by the skin of their teeth.

Instead, it happened like this: Steve, alone with Tony in his workshop, listening to him explain the particulars of his newest project while elbow-deep in what looked like the torso of a battered robot. Tony paused to look up at Steve, eyes sparkling with excitement, hair a wild mess, and grease streaked on his cheek where he’d absentmindedly scratched at an itch.

And Steve couldn’t help but kiss him.

It was brief and chaste, Steve silently cursing his timing and bracing himself for rejection.

Until Tony smiled and said, “Finally,” as he reeled Steve back in.

* * *

 

Steve, thanks to both a serum-enhanced memory and the personality of an old-fashioned romantic, remembered the exact date of their first kiss and planned a special night out on its one year anniversary.

It wasn’t their first date as a couple, not by far; despite all the joking (mostly from Natasha, with support from Bucky), Steve wasn’t inclined to move at a glacial pace in this relationship. Thankfully, Tony felt the same, though he did tease Steve about it in the beginning (Bucky was getting to be a terrible influence).

But thanks to an untimely Avengers alert that led the team to fend off a sentient wave of pink slime which managed to coat an entire city block in the stuff, the restaurant with their very difficult to obtain reservations included in said city block, Steve’s plans were dashed.

“So much for a quiet night out,” Tony groaned. With his faccplate up, Steve could see his face contorting in disgust as more slime dropped off a gauntlet and onto the Tower’s (mostly) pristine floor. “At least we still have leftover pizza.”

“I wanted tonight to be special,” Steve muttered, unbuckling his helmet with a sigh.

“Hey, Cap.” Tony turned to face Steve. “At the risk of sounding like a $2 greeting card, every night with you is special. You can laugh, but I’ll have just as much fun eating leftover pizza and watching reality TV with you as I would going out tonight. In fact,” he grimaced at the state of Steve’s slime-covered uniform, “I’d actually prefer it.”

Steve visibly sagged, smile tugging at his tired face, which was answered by a quick kiss from Tony.

“Race you to the shower.”

* * *

 

If Steve gripped the arm of the plastic chair any harder, it’d be in pieces.

The medical wing of the Tower was the absolute last place he wanted to be on their anniversary, but that’s where Tony was, so that’s where Steve would be until he woke up. He tried to find some comfort in the rhythmic beating of the heart monitor, but all it did was remind him of what a precarious place Tony was in right now.

Steve sighed wetly and tried to get comfortable in the chair before reaching out to gently clasp Tony’s hand as a lifeline.

* * *

 

Tony hadn’t moved or said anything in almost thirty seconds, which Steve would’ve teased him about if he wasn’t waiting for a response with bated breath, hope flagging with each passing second.

“So,” Tony finally said, dragging out the word. He fiddled with the disassembled pieces of Natasha’s widow bites on the table in front of him. “You want to marry…me?”

Steve felt his eyebrows lift so high they could’ve jumped off his face. He looked at the open ring box in his hand, at Tony, at the workshop around them and briefly considered the possibility he was in another universe.

“Yes?” This situation was not unfolding the way he expected. “That was the plan.” An unbidden thought suddenly crossed his mind. “Unless you don’t want to,” he offered hastily. “In that case we can forget all this and just move on to the other anniversary plans.”

“Who wouldn’t want to marry Captain America?” Tony murmured, eyes cast down. Steve felt a visceral pang lance through his chest.

“I’m sure there’s plenty of people who would, if he was asking,” Steve said quietly as he snapped the ring box closed and put it away. He tentatively moved forward, only getting close enough to reach for Tony’s hands, and took in a shuddering breath.

“But he’s not the one asking. Steve Rogers is.” At that admission, he took Tony’s hands in his, felt them tighten in the soft grasp. “And there’s only one person he wants to be with, the only one here and now who knows both, but chose him over Captain America. And you have no idea how much that means to me, every day.”

“Steve…” Tony whispered, finally looking up at him.

Managing a wry smile, Steve brought Tony’s hand to his lips and kissed it. “If you don’t want to get married and go through that whole rigmarole, I completely understand and won’t ask again, but please don’t go thinking you’re somehow not good enough for Steve Rogers when you’re all he’s ever wanted and would like to spend the rest of his life with.” He shrugged. “I mean, Natasha told me that these kind of lavish commitment ceremonies didn’t prove anything, but I still wanted to at least ask, and don’t worry about the ring-“

“Yes,” Tony blurted out.

Steve froze. “Is that yes to no marriage or…”

Tony laughed and tugged Steve as close as he could with the table between them.

“Yes, Steve Rogers, I’ll marry you.”

Helpless to stop an assuredly goofy grin from unfurling on his face, Steve leaned the rest of the way in to soundly kiss his fiancé.

“But I’m warning you now,” Tony murmured against his lips. “I have a lot of ideas for our ‘lavish commitment ceremony.”

* * *

 

“Do you, Steven Grant Rogers, take this man, Anthony Edward Stark to be your lawfully wedded husband…”

Even with his super serum advanced hearing (and well, super serum advanced everything), Steve was having a difficult time paying attention to anything that wasn’t the perfectly wonderful man standing across from him. Tony looked resplendent in his Iron Man suit, a new Mark he’d crafted especially for the wedding, looking at Steve like he hung the moon (and he absolutely would find a way, if Tony asked). Surrounded by their closest friends and teammates in an intimate ceremony to marry the love of his life only a year after he proposed was more than Steve could ever hope for.

He felt rather than heard himself say “I do” and those precious few seconds before Tony replied seemed like a lifetime, but as soon as he did, Steve felt like the last pieces of the puzzle of his 21st century life fell into place.

Then, as their lips were only inches apart, an ear-splitting roar broke through the romantic atmosphere and everyone in attendance tensed, as if in synch.

Steve sighed. “Of course.”

Tony just laughed and leaned in for the kiss, quicker than Steve wanted it to be. “Never a dull moment.”

Steve just shook his head and silently thanked their foresight in wearing their uniforms for the ceremony.

* * *

 

He’d hardly label himself as a perfectionist, but Steve felt he just had to get this right. You only got to have your first wedding anniversary once.

Tapping the pen against his lips, he reread the last paragraph of the letter he’d written (on parchment, of all things, which Natasha had raised her eyebrows at when he asked her to find it), searching for the perfect next words.

“A few minutes until it’s officially our first anniversary and he’s hiding out here, working on…paperwork?”      

Steve stifled a laugh as he hid his unfinished gift underneath the paperwork he’d finished hours ago.

He heard footsteps walk up behind him and reflexively relaxed against Tony as he looped arms around Steve’s neck and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“Any chance I can prove myself more enticing than mandatory Avengers bureaucracy?”

Huffing out a laugh, Steve turned his head just enough to kiss his husband on the lips.

“Always,” he murmured and left his gift to be finished tomorrow morning.

* * *

 

“We could’ve stayed in bed,” Tony complained through Steve’s comm.

Catching his shield as it incapacitated another goon and ricocheted off the building beside him, Steve grinned before responding.

“You and I were closest. And besides,” he grunted as he turned to knock out another man rushing up behind him. “We’ll have plenty of uneventful anniversaries.”

“I’m going to hold you to that, soldier,” Tony said gruffly, but not without affection. Steve smiled and ran over to cover his husband’s blind spot.

* * *

 

The phone rang in the early hours of the morning, around 2am, if Steve had to guess.

He shifted slightly, trying not to jostle Tony, who was spooned up against him, and reached for the phone.

“If you answer that phone, Steve Rogers, so help me God-“

Steve laughed quietly as he turned the phone off and settled back alongside Tony.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

* * *

 With a final harsh punch, Steve sent the punching bag across the gym. It was his third one this hour alone. 

He paused and leaned on his knees, panting harshly. Squeezing his eyes shut, he went over the events of this morning, how angry he was, thinking about Tony putting himself in danger, again, and how Steve never seemed to be able to do anything-

"Hey," a familiar voice called from across the room. Steve looked up to see Tony standing awkwardly by the door, making no move to come in. Staggering back a little, Steve nevertheless nodded in invitation. 

Cautiously, Tony crossed the room and stopped a bit away from Steve, hands twitching at his sides as if he wanted to reach out. Steve's heart ached. 

The two stared at each for a few moments, locked in a stalemate. Then Tony stumbled forward and Steve couldn't help but open his arms to him.

Steve felt Tony's choked off sob against his shoulder and tightened his hold, his own eyes welling up with tears.

"I'm sorry, Steve," Tony whispered. "I'm so sorry." 

Carefully pulling back, Steve looked tenderly into Tony's eyes before pressing a kiss to his forehead. They melted back into each other's arms and mutually allowed the stress from earlier to fade away. 

"I don't want to fight on our anniversary," Steve said softly. He felt Tony nod against his chest. 

"That's why I came down to apologize." With a sniffle, Tony looked up at Steve, who could see some of his familiar sparkle return to his eyes. "I was thinking we could table the...conversation from this morning until tomorrow and spend the rest of the day making up." He wrinkled his nose endearingly. "Figured we could start in the shower." 

Steve couldn't stop his outburst of laughter and only barely resisted the urge to pick up Tony and spin him around. "Sounds perfect."

* * *

Furrowing his brow, Steve looked over the list of candidates for what felt like the tenth time that day. Most had real potential and there were a few he'd like to meet in person. Not that he had any real need to, with the way things were set up now and besides, he definitely couldn't do anything about it today, not with-

"I would say I'm surprised you're not ready yet, but that would assume I hadn't known you for years." 

Steve allowed the smile to unfurl on his face as he heard his husband enter the room. 

"Hello dear," he said as he tilted to the side so Tony could kiss the side of his mouth. Which, as wonderful as it always was, gave him a clear vantage point to what Steve was occupied with. He tried not look at Tony's face, but couldn't help himself and looked up with a poorly concealed smile.

"You do know we're retired, right?" He leaned back against Steve's desk, arms folded and eyebrows raised. "We had a whole OG team discussion about it and then you and I had a more...personal discussion later on." Both of them grinned at the memory. 

"I know, I know," Steve sighed and shrugged. "Old habits die hard." He stood up and pointedly moved the files into his desk drawer. "I'm sure Sam, Bucky, Queens and the rest of them will make good picks, I just wanted copies for myself."

Tony snorted. "I can't believe you still call him that. You do know he's not a kid anymore."

"When you're as old as I am," Steve started as Tony groaned. Laughing, he boxed Tony in against his desk, happy to be back in his husband's space. "Yeah, I know" he continued. "He's doing a great job. I think for the first time I'm actually starting to feel my age."

"Not so fun, is it?" Tony taunted. 

Steve smiled as he played with Tony's hands. "At least I'm not going through it alone." 

Tony's face softened for a moment before slipping into something more sultry. 

"You know, there are a few things we aren't getting too old for..." His comment trailed off pointedly as he lifted himself onto the desk. Steve's eyes widened.

"Do we have time?" he asked breathlessly. 

With a fluid motion honed by years of practice, Tony reached out to pull Steve in.

"Plenty." 

* * *

"Hey honey"

"Steve? Where are you calling from? I almost didn't pick up when I didn't recognize the number." 

"Ah, well, I'm in-"

"And of course you call that horrendously outdated mobile phone instead of the Starkphone I know you know I have-"

"I'm in jail."

"..."

"Tony?"

"Care to repeat that, Steve?"

"I promise there's a reasonable explanation-"

"On our anniversary Steve, really?" 

"Well, America called and said she, Nico, Doreen, and Kamala were at the demonstration downtown and asked if I could stop by and help, just for a little bit-"

"And you got yourself arrested how?"

"I wasn't going to stand by and let the cops brutalize any of the protesters. And no, before you ask, I didn't hurt anyone, just got in the way, which tends to annoy people, if you didn't know." 

"So I'm going to have to come and bail you out is what you're saying?"

"Um...not just me."

"Oh? You've been making friends in the few hours you've been there." 

"There's kids here Tony. I figured I'd warn you before you got here." 

"Boy, you sure do have a lot of faith in me coming to your rescue." 

"Always, Tony." 

"You're lucky I love you so much." 

"I know." 

"...Alright, I'm handing off my experiment to Peter here and I'll be there soon. And you're not going to leave our house for the rest of the day."

"Of course, honey." 

"Some anniversary."

"Hey, never a dull moment."

* * *

 With the TV droning on in the background and Tony curled up against him on the couch, Steve felt more relaxed than he had in a while. 

"You don't think we're getting boring, do you?" Tony asked sleepily. 

"Hmmm?" Steve responded, turning to nuzzle Tony's forehead and pressed a kiss to the edge of his graying hair.

"It's our anniversary and we're sitting on the couch, about ready to fall asleep at 5pm."

"Hmmmm." Steve assented. "That's a bad thing?" 

Tony shrugged halfheartedly. "Guess I never expected my life to end up here." 

Steve smiled. "I guess I should've scheduled those sky-diving plans after all." 

Chuckling, Tony swatted at Steve. "You know exactly what I meant." 

"Yeah," Steve sighed. "And I get it. When I used to imagine my future, this isn't what I had in mind."

Tony tensed and Steve pulled him closer.

"It's so much better than anything I ever dreamed of," he continued and as he felt Tony relax against him, leaned down to capture his mouth in a soft kiss. 

"And maybe we are boring, but I think we've more than earned it. Would you really rather be out there dealing with Avengers business?"

Groaning, Tony pressed his face into Steve's chest, who only laughed. 

"Yeah, alright," Tony assented with a grumble. "I'm fine with 'Iron Man & Captain America: The Old Married Editions.' Just thought I'd broach the subject before you got bored and left me for a younger model."

"Oh, honey," Steve said. "No one could ever replace you." He paused to take in Tony's adoring expression before grinning widely. "Besides, who else would put up with me?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "And they say romance is dead." 

But he drags Steve down for a lengthy kiss anyway.

* * *

 

Steve Rogers lovingly twists his wedding ring around his finger as he sits in bed beside his husband.

There are so many who would look at his impeccable memory as a curse. And even though Steve has suffered through his absurdly long life, he ultimately sees it as a blessing that he gets to remember every amazing thing that's been a part of it. Most of which involve Tony Stark. 

Smiling to himself, he leans over and presses a kiss to his husband's cheek, finding him as handsome as ever with his silver hair, artful wrinkles, and glasses dripping down his nose as he frowns at the work on his tablet. 

When Steve pulls back, Tony pauses to look at him, eyebrow raised. 

"What was that for?" 

Steve laughed. "Can't a man kiss his husband without being accused of something." 

"I guess not," Tony said, teasingly. He sets the tablet aside to pull Steve towards him and they gracefully fold themselves into each other's arms. Steve takes a moment to admire their matching rings on wrinkled hands, before turning the last light off and pulling the covers over them.

Even now, it still marvels him how two people so different could come together in love and wind up on the same path for the rest of their lives. 

And as they fall asleep together for what feels like the millionth time, Steve can only think about how lucky he is that this is the life that awaited him after he thought it was over hundreds of years ago.

 


End file.
